Rodrigo De Arriaga and Christoph Haunold on the “Species Sensibiles”
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Filosofi cký časopis Special Issue Ontology and Experience – Rodrigo de Arriaga and Christoph Haunold on the “Species sensibiles” Ulrich G. Leinsle Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Regensburg [email protected] Within the framework of Aristotelian scholastic philosophy in the early modern age and its philosophical penetration of sensory perception, the images of perception (species sensibiles) have a twofold function: ey explain the stimulation of the sensory organ by a distant object, and they guarantee the objective correctness of sensory perception, since they are immaterial, formal, or representative images of the object. As immaterial and intentional images, they cannot be perceived as such according to the common opinion. At least since William of Occam, however, the necessity of such species has been questioned for certain senses or altogether. is discus sion enters a new stage in the vicinity of Cartesian debates in the Society of Jesus. Even the prohibition in the thesis “Nullae dantur species, ne intelligibiles quidem” by Cf. Sorabij, R., Intentionality and Physiological Processes: Aristotle’s Theory of Sense-Percep- tion. In: Nussbaum, M. C. – Rorty, A. O. (eds.), Essays on Aristotle’s “De anima”. Oxford, Claren- don , p. –; Maier, A., Ausgehendes Mittelalter. Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Geistesge- schichte des . Jahrhunderts. Vol. Roma, Storia e letteratura , p. –; Park, K., The Organic Soul. In: Schmitt, Ch. (ed.), The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. Cam- bridge, Cambridge University Press , p. –, here p. –, ; Castellote Cubells, S., Die Anthropologie des Suarez. Beiträge zur spanischen Anthropologie des XVI. und XVII. Jahr- hunderts. Freiburg i. Br.–München, Alber , p. –; Clemenson, D. L., Seventeenth-Century Scholastic Philosophy of Cognition and Descartes’ Causal Proof of God’s Existence. Diss. Harvard University. Ann Arbor, University Microfi lms , p. –; Leinsle, U. G., Dilinganae Disputa- tiones. Der Lehrinhalt der gedruckten Disputationen an der Philosophischen Fakultät der Univer- sität Dillingen –. Regensburg, Schnell & Steiner , p. –. – For the translation I thank Mr. Martin Blay, Dipl.-Theol., University of Regensburg. Cf. Castellote Cubells, S., Die Anthropologie des Suarez, op. cit., p. ; Clemenson, D. L., Seventeenth-Century Scholastic Philosophy of Cognition and Descartes’ Causal Proof of God’s Existence, op. cit., p. –. With exception of Julius Caesar Scaliger, Exotericarum exercitationum Liber XV. Adversus Hieronymum Cardanum. Frankfurt, Wechel , ex. n. , p. –. KKniha_Dvorak.indbniha_Dvorak.indb 110303 113.01.20173.01.2017 88:41:23:41:23 Ulrich Leinsle general Francesco Picciolomini in 1651 permits a denial of species sensibiles, although it does not approve it. In 1645, Christoph Haunold (1610–1689), a self-confi dent young professor of philosophy at the Jesuit University of Dillingen and former student of Juan de Lugo (1583–1660) at Rome, who later became a famous theologian at the University of Ingolstadt, starts to intervene in the ongoing debate. In his extensive disputation Philosophia de anima sensitiva, he attacks the arguments of his Prague colleague Rodrigo de Arriaga (1592–1667). In the following, I am going to examine this controversy by referring to Arriaga’s Cursus philosophicus, which off ers the identical text concerning this ques- tion from 1632 to 1653, and the revised Cursus from 1669. Both authors do not treat the species among the particular senses, but in an own chapter, which is Hau nold’s fi rst chapter and includes lengthy examinations of optic experiments and empirical facts. erefore, the debate between Arriaga, Haunold, and other authors of the Society of Jesus may serve as an impres- sive prime example of the relationship between ontology, common sense, and experimental experience. At least, Arriaga and Haunold agree in their assumption of species for the visual sense, but not in further points, namely the divisibility and intensifi cation of species, their visibility and function, the necessity of species for hearing, the perceptibility of location in space by the sensus communis and the existence of species within the inner sense, which are not derived from perception. According to Arriaga, the species is a certain quality brought forth by objects, which contributes to their percep- Pachtler, G. M. (ed.), Ratio Studiorum et Institutiones Scholasticae Societatis Iesu per Germaniam olim vigentes, vol. Repr. Osnabrück, Biblio , p. ; cf. Clemenson, D., Descartes and his Jesuit Contemporaries on Intentional Representation. In: Čemus, P. (ed.), Bohemia Jesuitica – . Praha, Karolinum , p. –. For Haunold see Boehm, L. et al. (eds.), Biographisches Lexikon der Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität München. Teil I: Ingolstadt-Landshut –. Berlin, Duncker & Humblot , p.–; Leinsle, U. G., Dilinganae Disputationes, op. cit., Register. Haunold, Ch., Philosophia de anima sensitiva disputata pro doctoratu philosophico in celebri et catholica Universitate Diligana. Dilingen, Typis Academicis (hereinafter referred to as Philosophia). Cf. Sousedík, S., Rodericus de Arriaga: Leben und Werk. In: Saxlová, T. – Sousedík, S. (eds.), Rodrigo de Arriaga. Philosoph und Theologe. Prag .–. Juni . Praha, Karolinum , p. –. For his sensation theory: Sousedík, S., La obra fi losófi ca de Rodrigo de Arriaga. Ibero- Americana Pragensia, , , p. –, here p. –. Arriaga, R., Cursus philosophicus. Antwerpen, Moreti ; Paris, Durand ; Paris, Quesnel ; Paris, Piot ; Lyon, Prost . Here I use the edition Paris, Durand . Arriaga, R., Cursus philosophicus, iam noviter maxima ex parte auctus. Lyon, Huguetan & Barbier (hereinafter referred to as Cursus ). Arriaga, R., Cursus , De Anima disp. , p. –; Haunold, Ch., Philosophia, c. : De specibus impressis, p. –. Arriaga, R., Cursus , De Anima disp. n. , p. ; Haunold, Ch., Philosophia, c. a. , p. –. KKniha_Dvorak.indbniha_Dvorak.indb 110404 113.01.20173.01.2017 88:41:23:41:23 Ontology and Experience… tion instead of the objects themselves. Hence, the senses, which use the species, do not directly perceive the objects, but only mediated through these representative qualities. 1. Divisibility and Intensifi cation of Species e function of species becomes most obvious in case of the visual sense. Apparently, Arriaga is unimpressed by Johannes Kepler’s and Christoph Schreiner’s research results and still follows Aristotle, when he assumes the humor chrystallinus, the lens, as its organ. In contrast, Haunold follows Schreiner and clearly assumes that the retina is the visual organ by pointing to experimental evidence with the help of a telescope (reversal of pictures, visual angle). Arriaga’s brief examination of intensifi cation and weakening of species sensibiles mostly follows traditional paths and only mentions greater production by the object and luminous intensity as causes. Instead, Haunold, who is well-versed in dioptrics and catoptrics, extensively discusses the divisibility of species regarding their representative function and inten- sity (decrease through greater distance, intensifi cation through refl ection and refraction). Several times, he refers to his theses on de generatione et corruptione and optic experiments, e.g. with the camera obscura, and the species are already closely tied up with the quality of refl ected or refracted Arriaga, R., Cursus , De Anima disp. n. , p. : Nomine speciei impressae intelligimus in praesenti qualitatem quamdam productam ab obiectis, ut eorum loco ad cognitionem eorundem concurrat. Kepler, J., Ad Vitellionem paralipomena. Frankfurt, Marnius ; cf. Lindberg, D.C., Auge und Licht im Mittelalter. Die Entwicklung der Optik von Alkindi bis Kepler. Transl. M. Althoff . Frankfurt a. Main, Suhrkamp , p. –. Scheiner, Ch., Oculus, hoc est fundamentum opticum. Innsbruck, Agricola ; cf. Daxecker, F., Christoph Scheiner’s Eye studies. Documenta ophthalmologica, , , p. –; Idem, Further studies by Christoph Scheiner concerning the Optics of the Eye. Ibid., , , p. –. Arriaga, R., Cursus , De Anima disp. n. , p. For the early modern theories of vision see also Koelbing, H. M., Ocular Physiology in the Seventeenth Century and its Acceptance by the Medical Profession. In: Scherz, G. (ed.), Steno and Brian Research in the Seventeenth Century. Proceedings of the International Historical Symposium on Nicolaus Steno and Brain Research in the Seventeenth Century held in Copenhagen – August . Oxford, Pergamon Press , p. –; Koelbing, H. M., Renaissance der Augenheilkunde –. Bern–Stuttgart, Huber , p. –; Crombie, A. C., The Mechanistic Hypothesis and the Scientifi c Study of Vision: Some Optical Ideas as Background to the Invention of the Microscope. In: Bradbury, S. – Turner, G. (eds.), Historical Aspects of Microscopy. Papers read at a One-day Conference held by The Royal Microscopical Society at Oxford, March . Cambrige, Heff er , p. –. Haunold, Ch., Philosophia, c. a. , p. –. Arriaga, R., Cursus , De Anima disp. n. , p. Haunold, Ch., De Ortu et Interitu Theoremata Physica Mathematicis permixta. Dillingen, Formis Academicis , Theorema Mathematicum , p. –. KKniha_Dvorak.indbniha_Dvorak.indb 110505 113.01.20173.01.2017 88:41:24:41:24 Ulrich Leinsle beams of light. However, according to Haunold, this intensifi cation of light and species is not a qualitative intensifi cation in the proper sense, as in case of warmth and coldness with heterogeneous degrees, but only regarding the intensifi cation of their common eff ect. is is so, because crossing beams of light spread across their own lines again after